But They'd Never Admit It
by Royy22
Summary: Levi is a rather competitive guy, so is Clementine, and their personal contest had sparked a mutual bitterness towards each other. However if they want to rescue someone they both hold near their hearts, they must bridge the gap between them. OC/Clementine. Spans from S3 to S4 and further. Rated T for now.


Disclaimer: All characters apart from my OC are owned by Telltale Games.

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The body was lifted slowly, with gentle hands – no visible bite marks – just bullet holes. The boy's head rose, and he spotted four more corpses, all laying in a perfect line. 'Execution' He thought to himself with disgust written all over his face. Shaking his head in disappointment he looked behind him, towards the two people who were assigned to his squad. They both had faces that told stories, hurt, hunger, hopelessness. They tried to hide it. But they were failing. An infant could see right through their façade. It's been one thousand two hundred and fifty-seven days since the outbreak first started, and people were losing hope.

"What you thinkin' Levi?" He glanced at the body one last time. "Well, both his knee caps were shot, one after the other. Then, both of his elbows. One bullet to the torso and one to the skull. Execution." Came the boy's grim summary. "Damn, who the hell is causin' this shite?" Max questioned. He had a wide jaw with a short stubble. A broad nose and narrow, green eyes. Grey hairs were sticking out from the sides of his black beanie and a leather bomber jacket rested around his shoulders on top of a blue tee shirt.

Levi hummed in agreement and just as he was about to stand, something brown, caught his attention. It was in the corpse's pocket. He reached for it and pulled it out. It was an old leather wallet. Inside, was a Georgia licence. "Wayne Runty, born 1983… Died 2016." Levi added the last part and slowly closed the wallet. He slid it back into the dead man's jean pocket, back to where it belonged. He stood up, and turned towards the other two raiders. "Man, let's get outta here, we got what we came for so let's dip before more roamers pop up." The other man, Lonnie, stated. He was dark-skinned, sporting a simple buzz cut. His facial hair was clean shaven, and a slim jawline adorned his thin face. His thick eyebrows were furrowed, most likely because of worry.

"Sure. Come on Levi, before Lonnie shits himself." Levi chuckled quietly and headed towards their 'New Frontier' pick-up truck. "Watch that mouth old man!" Lonnie threatened half-heartedly as he too entered the pick-up. "Har har." Max muttered before turning the ignition to start the engine. Instead of the engine coming to life, the horrid sound of metal grinding against metal filled the car. Max immediately stopped and pulled out the keys. The driver groaned in annoyance and wacked the top of the steering wheel in rage. "Fuckin' car. Levi, check it out." The boy being referred to nodded without objection and stepped out of the car.

Looking up at the sky, he noticed the sun beginning to set, it wouldn't take long for night to come. "Pop the hood." He directed, and soon enough, the hood popped up as the latch let go. He raised it with both of his hands and secured it in place using the rusty hood prop. Levi identified the faulty engine to be a straight-four, Toyota 21R, gasoline engine. The causes of the problem were visible right off the bat. Lonnie and Max soon joined Levi by the engine bay and waited for his conclusion. "Well, uh… the fan belt's come off, a spark plug is uh, out of it's socket." He reached in checked the levels of the oil and the coolant. "Hm, oil's fine but the coolant's gone. That combined with no fan means that it overheated. I can put the spark plug and the belt into place, but it's gonna have to cool off by itself since we have no coolant lying about." The driver of the pickup nodded with furrowed brows. "How long's that gonna take kid?" Levi thought for a second. Estimating how many miles they'd driven and how long it took them.

"An hour at most, so not too long." Lonnie's eyes widened. "You mean that we'll be sittin' ducks for an hour?" Levi nodded sombrely. "This iron they used to cast the block is a good conductor of heat, takes a while to cool."

"Clearly." Lonnie snarled, stomped back towards the doors and sat inside the truck. "Don't mind him, do your thing, I got yer back." Max reassured and leaned against the side of the truck with a knife in one hand. Levi inspected the engine once more before rolling up the sleeves of his jacket and the two layers of clothing beneath it, and grabbed the fan belt. It took some struggling before the belt was finally in place. "Now, sparks." Levi muttered as he took hold of one spark was easy enough, just shove it into it's socket and that's it. "How's it going, mister engineer?" Max questioned as Levi was lowering the prop and was starting to close the hood.

"Go ahead and turn the key, I'm all done, and maybe engine's already cool enough." The young mechanic suggested as he wiped the grime and oil off of his hands. Max did as Levi suggested and the engine roared to life once more. "Good job Levi, hop in. Let's go home." Max said as he shut his door and put the vehicle into gear.

"Finally." Lonnie muttered and rolled up his window. Levi jumped in, and soon enough they were on their way to their campsite.

By the time they arrived the sky was pitch black, the clouds had parted to reveal a beautiful, starry sky. They pulled in beside other 'New Frontier' branded vehicles and killed the engine. "It's late, Lonnie and I will forward what we found to Joan back at headquarters, go and chill, you earned it." Levi nodded and opened his door, ready to leave. "Oh, and report the coolant thing, if you don't fill it then-" He was cut off by Max. "Don't worry. We got this." Levi nodded and hopped out.

His feet met the dirt and the fallen leaves with a soft crunch. Just like that, Max and Lonnie were on their way to the New Frontier headquarters. The teen decided to head towards the main campfire. He could use the heat. The nights were getting colder and colder, the New Frontier barely survived the last winter and they seemed to be getting worse as the years progressed. He shoved both of his cold hands into the comfy pockets of his navy-blue bomber jacket. He had a black jumper on top of an old button-up shirt, in an attempt to shield himself from the cold, but it did little to help. A pair of worn black jeans adorned his legs and a pair of brown Hi-Tops hugged his feet.

It didn't take him long to reach the main campfire, where a small crowd of people sat patiently, they were all listening to David, one of the leaders, who was telling one of his old army tales. "So uh, me and Cade were in this one unit in the army, where-" He started tuning out David's low voice when a high pitched cough reached his ears. The New Frontier weren't exactly, huge, as of yet which meant that everyone knew everyone. And Levi knew only one toddler who was sick and coughed that particular way.

He looked to his right, where the cough came from, and as he looked closer, he noticed a white and blue baseball cap bob towards the medical tent. He quickly changed his course from the campfire to the nearby tent that the cap bobbed towards. He waved his goodbye to David as he was walking away, and the story teller lifted his left hand in acknowledgment. To be honest, he wasn't a big fan of David, however, he was his boss. Levi turned towards the general direction of the medical tent and weaved in between other people's tents to reach his desired location.

There, he found the owner of that blue and white baseball cap he spotted earlier. She was the same age as him, however, he was taller than her by a few inches, she reached up to the bottom of his nose with the top of her head. He knew very well why she was here, and quite frankly, he was pissed off.

Another soft cough escaped the toddler's lips, which was soon followed by a soft cry. He was definitely in pain. "AJ please, you have to be quiet." She whispered into the ear of the small toddler and caressed his cheek to comfort him. Her voice shook slightly as she pleaded for AJ to quieten down. AJ had large, purple bags under each of his brown eyes. He was dark skinned, unlike Levi, who was Caucasian. The young toddler had a rounded face with large lips and a wide nose. The clothes he was wearing were ripped up denim overalls, a green tee shirt and a black hoodie.

Once he calmed down, she smiled softly and pulled out a ripped-up piece of paper. Levi snuck up behind her and tapped her on her left shoulder. She immediately whipped round and gripped the handle of her knife which was sitting on her hip. Her brows were furrowed, and her eyes were narrowed as she prepared to face her opponent. Levi simply glared at her, however, he took the time t soften his face and smile at AJ who was sitting on a crate behind her. The toddler reciprocated his touching gesture and waved slightly.

"What are you doing here?" She queried. Her face remained firm, her eyes remained narrow and her thin, straight, eyebrows were furrowed. She had a rather large scar just above her right eyebrow. He didn't know how she got it, no one did. She had dark skin, a slim jawline, a small – slightly turned up – nose and short black hair that was tied at the back.

-Flashback-

"You will release the empty magazine in your rifle, load a fresh magazine into your firearm, pull the charging handle, and fire exactly five shots on my command. On my go." A tall man stomped from side to side, giving each of the participants a threatening look. His boots hit the autumn leaves with soft crunches. A dozen kids stood on attention, each beside their own firearm. One of the kids smirked as a genius idea came to mind. "Pst, aim for the big target, not the wall behind it. Then again, my money's on you hitting it anyway." Levi smirked as he inspected the worn AK-U in his hands. The new girl standing to his left snorted. "Make sure the gun's facing the target, not your own face. Then again, I don't care whether it is or not." Levi's smirked widened, he already liked this new girl. "Ice cold. I'm Levi." Before the girl had the chance to reply, David -the man in charge of the kids- charged up to Levi and ripped the submachine gun from his grasp. "Pay attention boy! I don't give two shits whether you survive out there, but Joan seems to like you, so think yourself lucky! Got that?!"

The ex-Navy Seal rifleman roared and shoved the gun back into his skinny arms. "Yes sir." Levi muttered. "What was that!?" Levi snorted. "Sir yes sir!" He roared into David's face at the top of his lungs. Someone told him once, that he can't be a pushover if he wanted to survive. He lived by those words since the accident. David glared at the boy and marched away. "Ready! Begin!" He hollered and the kids began. Levi pressed the magazine release and before the empty mag had the chance to hit the ground, he had finished loading the next. He yanked the charging handle to load a round into the chamber. Flicked the safety off and fired five bullets. However, he wasn't the first to shoot. He heard at least two shots fire from his left, and three was only one person in that direction. The girl. That was the first time anyone's beaten him to pulling the trigger.

He flicked the safety back on and stared at her. She had put on a cocky smirk. All the kids rushed towards their targets. He had three bullseyes and two shots just slightly off. He smiled triumphantly. There's no way she beat him. However, he was wrong. She had four bullseyes and only one shot was wide. Her shots were marginally more grouped together than his, too. "Guess you lost your bet. I'm Clementine." He stared at her with wide eyes as she walked away to put back her rifle. He really liked this girl, but he'd never admit it.

-End Of Flashback-

"Well, I could ask you the same thing Clem." He muttered, she snorted quietly and reached for the first aid kit that was lying on top of an old wooden table. "I'm doing what they won't. Saving AJ." She stated, he could sense the venom wrapped between her words as she gave the piece of paper one more look and started shuffling through the multiple vials and bottles inside the kit. "What's that?" The curious boy asked, staring at the piece of paper. She handed it to him without a word and continued her search. "Deval…Proex? Not that one." She muttered under her breath.

He studied the paper for a second and shoved it into his pocket. "Vancomycin? Really?" It was a very rare and valuable antibiotic. It could save someone's life if used at the right time. This wasn't the right time. As much as he loved AJ, even he, knew that this was too far. "Clem, you have no idea how he could react. They've already pumped tonnes of antibiotics into him and they did nothing." Clementine paused and turned toward him. "Be quiet and help me, or leave. Your choice. And to be honest, I don't remember you doing anything to help." Once again, there was poison knit in between her words. She tried to hide her current condition, but he could see right through her. She too, had bags under her eyes and tried to stifle a yawn. "You need rest, Clem. How long has it been since you last slept? Days?" She shook her head. He did care about her, just because they weren't the friendliest towards each other, he still cared. "That doesn't matter. What matters is AJ, he needs this. I'm going to do anything I can, to try to help him, and no one will stop me, not them, and definitely not you." Venom.

Her drained and irritated, but determined, eyes. stayed planted on his eyes, his orbs mirrored her own. He admired her determination. Not many people nowadays could claim that they were as determined or as stubborn as she was. He shook his head in defeat and looked into the open first aid kit. He was doing this for AJ and the two teens had to put their differences aside. It's a shot, you'll need the syringe." He had, in fact, tried to help AJ. Of course, Clem didn't know as he spent multiple nights looking through all the medicines and antibiotics alongside Dr Lingard. She was asleep with AJ when he studied the medical books that belonged to Lingard.

Clementine froze and reached for the syringe. "It would have to be a shot…" She handed Levi the syringe and took out a small vial with the label of 'Vancomycin' stuck on the front. She turned to AJ and caressed his check in a loving manner. "Hang in there, goofball. This is gonna get you better."

She read the label, looking for how much she could give the sick toddler. She reached her hand out, expecting Levi to give her the syringe. "You sure about this Clem?" She let out a deep breath and nodded. So, Levi complied and gave her the empty syringe.

She filled half of the syringe with Vancomycin and handed Levi the vial. It was empty.

Just then, Dr Lingard opened his blue eyes and massaged his head. His eyes were bloodshot. It didn't take long for either of the kids to realise that he was, once again, high. The doctor was wearing a teal coloured turtle neck, covered by a grey cardigan. His face was long and narrow, as was his nose and the lips that sat atop his pointy chin. His hair was ruffled up and pointed in all sorts of directions.

"Clem." Both kids held sympathy for the doctor. He truly had lost many things. But haven't they all? "Dr Lingard? What's the matter with you?" Clem asked quietly. Lingard held onto his head for a minute longer before replying to her question. "I'm… I'm fine." Was his court reply. Once the man realised what the two kids were up to, his eyes widened slightly. "Clem… please don't. The vancomycin – That's the last of it. It'll be wasted on AJ, there's no point."

Levi couldn't help but take offence to that. He was talking about a sick child who was in pain, not some object. "Don't say that Doc, it could work. There's always a chance." Levi reasoned with the older man. Levi refused to lose hope. He wouldn't let another person he loved die. Perhaps it would, in fact, work. And AJ would get better? He wouldn't throw away even the slightest chance of helping him. "I already told you Levi. If used right, it can save someone's life. It's too valuable to use it on a lost cause." Clem's nostrils flared, and she narrowed her eyes at the doctor.

"You selfish jerk. You'd let him die to save your drugs!" She spat angrily. Levi's eyes widened, and he reacted quickly. "Clem shhh, they might hear us." The young mechanic pointed out, nudging his head to the left, where David was still telling his story.

"Because, they won't do a thing for him Clem. I'm sorry. I tried everything, I - I really did. We all did." Clem shook her head and tightened her gripped on the half-filled syringe. "This, will, help him get better." At this point Levi wasn't sure if she said that to convince Lingard, or to convince herself. She was falling apart inside. . "Nothing can help your boy now." That was a bit too far. "Come on man, don't say that." Lingard gave Levi a sympathetic look before turning back to the troubled girl. "Oh Clem, put it back before someone sees you. You know what they do to those who don't follow the rules here."

She looked at Levi, silently pleading for help, but she'd never admit it. "Whatever you decide... I'm with you Clem, for AJ." She nodded, wiped her eyes and turned to face AJ. "I-I have to try." Lingard sighed and lied back down on his makeshift bed. "Be brave bud." Levi whispered, holding up a thumbs-up gesture. AJ smiled sweetly innocently in response.

The young toddler's guardian steadied her hand and decided that it would be better if she did this quickly. She rolled up his sleeves and pushed the syringe into AJ's little arm with a fair amount of force… The air was soon filled with ear shattering crying and whaling. "AJ! Shhh!" Levi quickly put a hand over AJ's mouth and prayed that no one would come. However, no one listened to his prayers, and a loud series of footsteps started getting closer and closer. "What the hell is this?" It was David. Oh no. Clem quickly scooped up AJ into her arms and stood up. She turned AJ away from David, as if she was attempting to shield the poor child from the man.

"She… I told them it was a bad idea." Lingard claimed. It didn't take long for a crowd of people to form around Levi, Clem and AJ. David turned towards the doctor. "You fucking high, again? Pull yourself together before others see you! Deal with the damn kid." David snarled at Lingard and yanked him off the bed without having to use much force.

"What the fuck were you thinking?! You were told, those drugs couldn't help him, how could you be so stupid? So selfish?!" David roared. "I had nothing left to lose! AJ was gonna die if I didn't." Clem retorted and slowly started to back away from David. "He's gonna die anyway!" David spat and started making his way towards Clem and AJ. Levi stood in front of her. Cutting off David from reaching them.

"What do you think you're doing Levi? That waste? That'll cost someone's life down the road, maybe your life, or maybe someone else's. Someone who contributes to our survival might die because of your stupidity!" David continued his rant, not stopping for a second. Levi was almost as tall as David, he could see the dark veins in David's forehead bulge as the man stared him down. "Get outta my way." David growled as he glared angrily at the boy in front of him.

Levi didn't say a word, he just continued glaring at David, He wouldn't let him hurt AJ, or Clementine. "C'mon David. She was just trying to help her kid." David's second-in-command, Ava, stepped in. Her hair was all shaved off, she was dark-skinned and had a thin facial shape with small features.

"We helped enough! We should've left them out in the woods a week ago! Clementine, the kid and Levi!" David exploded, and the volume of his voice rose by a few decibels.

No one even realised that AJ stopped crying and had fallen asleep. "But look… It's helping!" Clem tried to reason with the walking time bomb as she held onto AJ. "It don't work that way, Clem.-" Dr Lingard interjected. "-You bought him a peaceful moment, nothing more. I wish I could tell you it would save him, but, I can't." By now Clem had let the tears fall. They were starting to stream down her face and she was starting to sob.

"Yeah, well, it's more than you ever did! Any of you." Levi strained his muscles and stood up straight, he had never seen her cry before, and it got to him, he'd never admit it, but it hurt to see her cry. "That's not fair, you can't say that." Ava stated and crossed her arms across her chest. "You ungrateful little shit!" David hollered. "Back off, David." Levi warned, cementing his position in between David and Clementine. The angered leader of the New Frontier used both of his hands to push Levi out of the way. The boy stumbled back but stayed on his feet. "We opened our arms to all three of you, made you one of us! This is how you repay us? By stealing? By putting yourselves and the little shit before the group? You're all done here." Before David could react, Levi swung his right fist, aiming right for his nose. His fist connected with its' target and a sickening crack filled the air as David stumbled back, holding on to his bleeding nose.

Levi shook his fist as his knuckles burned from the contact. Some of the soldiers immediately started towards him, he threw a series of punches, some connecting, others not so much. The two men blocked the young boys' attacks and started taking hold of Levi. One man holding each arm. "You shit, you're gonna get it now!" David boomed. Levi tried pulling, wiggling, kicking. Anything, that would help him get out of this situation. Nothing helped. To his right, Levi spotted three people attempting to rip AJ out of Clementine's arms. "Nooooo! You monsters!"

Before he knew it, a fist met the underside of his chin and he was looking up at the starry sky. He could taste the metallic, salty, taste of blood as it entered his mouth. A few seconds later, he was looking down at the dirt his knees were planted on as one of the fucks holding him elbowed the back of his head, hard. He could see blood slowly drip from his nose onto the ground. Before he could take a breath, a knee came into contact with his temple. He could hear high-pitched screaming. But he couldn't tell where it was coming from and it was soon replaced with deafening ringing. His vision was tunnelled. He realised he couldn't even feel his limbs anymore, he was numb all over, apart from the places where the pain was coming from. Punch after punch after punch, the assault continued, and it felt like he could feel each individual cell and blood vessel bursting, he started to feel each nerve blasting out electric shocks and chemical responses. He could feel, and hear, his heart beating in his ears. He could feel his lung collapse, he realised that he could only breath through his mouth, which meant that his nose was broken. His field of vision started shrinking, until, all he could see was David, throwing another punch, and the occasional kick. He tried looking around, searching for her. Wanting to make sure that she was okay, but his vision was beginning to blur. Until all he could see was black.

There was a moment of peace, serenity. Where there was no more pain, it was short-lived. His eyes snapped open not long after. "Look who's woken up from his beauty sleep. Stay awake." David threatened, and he felt another fist hit his cheek which made him spit out more blood, or was that a tooth? He wasn't sure as his vision was heavily impaired from the silent tears, blood and sweat. "Stop!" He heard. "Please!" He knew it was Clementine. She was crying and sobbing loudly. He tried looking up from the ground, only to meet a fist halfway through. The two men holding his arms laughed and let him go. He fell onto his back and started coughing violently.

His view of the stars was blocked by a blurry face. As his tired eyes slowly focused, he realised that the face belonged to Clementine, she had tears flowing freely down her cheeks and was yelling something incoherent. He started wheezing as his collapsed lung couldn't hold much air.

"We're gonna finish this tomorrow! Oh, and stay outta my way next time!" He could barely hear David yell as he started walking away, holding on to his broken nose. The crowd started to disperse, until the only ones left were Dr Lingard and Ava. "Help me Doc." Ava muttered as she grabbed Levi underneath his arms and the Doc grabbed his legs. "I got him good didn't I?" The battered boy spoke with a raspy voice. Levi tried to chuckle but gasped from the pain immediately.

They carried him to the medical tent and laid him down on Lingard's bed. "I'm gonna need to set that nose so you can breathe Levi, okay? Blink twice if you can hear me." Ava stated as rested her hands on either side of his nose. Before he even had the time to blink once, she snapped her hands to the left and air rushed into his nose, and down his windpipe, into his lung cavity. The air pressures were uneven between the two lungs. Tears welled up in his eyes as he took deep breaths. Lingard was behind Ava, collecting some bottles and vials. Clem was kneeling to his left, gently holding his hand with both of her own.

"This doesn't… change the fact that… I'm a better shot than you Clementine." Levi rasped out. The girl he was referring to threw him a firm look. "In your dreams." She muttered half-heartedly, she'd never admit that this 'contest' of theirs was pointless and annoying. Because deep down, she enjoyed bickering with him, and she wasn't about to stop. "He's still wheezing Doc." Ava informed the doctor as he made his way towards them while holding a briefcase. "That's because one of his lung's collapsed. Which means that he probably has fractured or broken ribs." Lingard set down his briefcase and pulled out multiple syringes, which he screwed on to large tubes. "I'm going to have to remove the air from his chest cavity and let the pressure level out."

Ava and Clem stared at him with wide eyes. "Doc, you're high. You can't do this." Lingard shook his head as he finished screwing on the third tube. "Adrenalin is a great 'high-remover'. I don't know which lung is collapsed, so I'm gonna have to go in blind." Levi could feel Clem tighten her grip on his hand. He'd never admit that it felt nice, being held by her. Lingard rolled up Levi's jumper and the shirt underneath. All three of the people present cringed at the purple and yellow bruises that were beginning to form all over his chest. "I'm going to have to do this without anaesthetic since he passed out recently. So, hold him down. Here we go."

The doc inserted the first syringe right in the middle of his chest. Levi jolted upwards with a gasp. However, Ava immediately pressed down on his shoulders and he fell back down. This repeated for the next two syringes that entered his chest.

After about an hour of peace and quiet, Dr Lingard started removing all of the syringes and covered the puncture wounds left by said syringes with small band-aids. By now, the beaten boy was breathing much more calmly and far smoother. "Since he's breathing normally, my best guess is that he has fractured ribs, not broken. If they were broken he'd still be struggling to breathe." Ava nodded in acknowledgment and turned her gaze towards the two kids.

His face was littered with bruises of numerous colours, his lip was busted, and blood continued to trickle lightly from his temple, that was going to leave a large scar. Levi was sound asleep, even snoring lightly every now and then. Clem was staring at his face sympathetically as she inspected the cuts and bruises on his face. "Where'd they take AJ?" Ava asked the doctor in a sad tone, low enough so that Clementine doesn't hear, because they both know that the second she found out where he was, she'd charge in guns blazing. Lingard's face fell, and he shrugged. "It's anyone's guess really, they could've taken him to Jane in the main camp by now, or they could've taken him to someone kind nearby..." Lingard sighed, and he rubbed his face with one hand. "I'm gonna go rest, so should you. And put something on, it's freezing." He finished and started the trek towards the tent he was assigned.

"You did nothing to stop him. Why?" Clem muttered in a grim tone. Ava froze. Clem's angry eyes were trained on her. "He could've died, but you didn't do anything." Ava knew why she didn't step in. She was too scared of David hurting her, and yet, she was fine with him beating a fourteen-year-old kid. The more she thought it over, the more messed up it sounded in her mind. "Go to sleep Clem. Look, Levi knows what's up." Ava joked humourlessly and backed out of the small medical tent, leaving Clem to her own thoughts.

Clem's gaze stayed on the second in command until her silhouette blended with the darkness of the night. She sighed in defeat and turned towards the boy who stood up for her, the boy who drew the short straw because of it. The boy who was, in fact, a better shot than her, though she'd never admit it. All she did was get people hurt. First Lee, then Omid, then Kenny. Now him.

She yawned tiredly and untied the red jacket that was fastened around her waist. The girl laid down on the dirt floor and covered her torso with the old jacket that once belonged to some other poor soul that ran out of luck. Her hand let go of his and shut her eyes. Every time she'd tried to fall asleep, she'd see everyone who died caring for her, taking care of her. And that night was no different. Except, now even Levi visited her nightmares.

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 _A/N : So what do you guys think? It's my first shot at a TWD fanfic. I'd love to hear what you guys think of this and my OC so far! Rate and Review, peace._


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